Introduction

Hi I’m Carolyn and I want to share with you the words of wisdom that my Grandmother shared with others. She wrote many food columns during her years. There is more information about that in the About section that I hope you check out. So to start this off I’m going share the introduction to her new column “Around the House” from the “Co-op News” as published in December 1978:

New News Feature

It has been pointed out to the management and staff at the Co-op that our monthly publication, Co-op News, was lacking articles of interest to the better half of the Co-op farm families. The wife of our member is a very important person to the cooperative. She is often the one who does the running for supplies, hauls the grain, pays the bills and quite often markets the farm production; so it is only logical that we incorporate information monthly of special interest to women as well as men.

We have commissioned Dolores Challender of rural Sedgwick to help us with this task; and we would like to encourage women from throughout our reading area to send Mrs. Challender ideas on homemaking or whatever would be of interest to our readers. We do not necessarily want to restrict this article to domestic functions, so have at it gals.

In order to build a rapport between Mrs. Challender and the reader, it seems only fitting to give a biographical sketch. Dolores was raised in Reno County, received her B.A. degree in Home Economics and has taught economics and history for several years. Presently, she is writing articles for three area newspapers and is employed as House Manager for Meadowlark Homestead, a rehabilitation agency in Newton, Kansas.

The Challender’s farm is north of Sedgwick, Kansas, where they have raised seven children who range in age from 20 to 32 years. Until 1976, their family milked dairy cows for 18 years and now is primarily involved in crop production. Willard has been a member of our cooperative ever since he began farming and his father, A. R. Challender was a charter member of the original Sedgwick Co-op Oil Company. Of course when all their kids were growing up, they were quite involved in 4-H Club work; the local clubs have made good use of Dolores’ talents by having her as a food leader for 18 years.

We are hopeful our readers will enjoy this new feature and will participate in its development. You may contact Dolores by mail.

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This is an interesting topic. The wife of a farmer was an integral part of the farm business. By running errands, she could keep the productive farmer out in the field. Even though she wasn’t paid wages, what she did enabled the farm profits to grow, thus benefitting her whole family. Farmer’s wives were some of the first liberated women. Why do you think Wyoming was the first state to grant women the right to vote? It was because women who helped on the farm, in a retail store, or in other ventures were very much appreciated by the husbands who may have been the official owner of these various businesses. In addition, many women also worked out in the field, or tended the chickens, milked the cows, worked in the family garden, or cooked meals for the harvesting crew